


Jackpot

by odinstark



Category: Detroit Evolution (2020), Detroit Evolution - Fandom
Genre: #DEArtFest, Accidents, F/F, Falling in Love (again), Marriage Proposal, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25135123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odinstark/pseuds/odinstark
Summary: it's the story of how Valerie and Tina got engagedFor Day 4 and Day 6 of #DEArtFestI'm a little late but oh well
Relationships: Tina Chen & Gavin Reed, Tina Chen/Valerie, Valerie & Gavin Reed
Kudos: 9





	Jackpot

The restaurant thrummed with friendly chatter and the constant clatter of dishes and glasses in the background. There was a rich, savoury smell in the air accompanied by the scent of sweet candles burning on all of the tables. Their plates were half empty and their glasses were completely so. 

Tina's eyes drifted from the table to glance at Valerie, to take in the cornflower blue dress shirt that she was wearing, that complimented her eyes, to study the waves in her hair that cascaded onto her shoulders. She looked peaceful and relaxed, but her eyes, they seemed to waiting for something. Her hand twitched on the table.

Tina took in a breathe that made her chest jerk with nerves. She met Valerie's eyes across the table.

"I honestly thought you were going to propose tonight," Tina bluntly stated. She almost slapped herself as soon as the words left her lips. Valerie froze in her seat and Tina felt fear creep in for a moment before a grin grew large on the other woman's face.

"No way, I thought _you_ were gonna propose," Valerie replied, and the two women giggled for a minute at their joint thought. When the laughter dissipated into the air, Tina became thoughtful. Valerie could almost see the cogs working in her skull and rolled her own eyes, before covering Tina's hand with her own.

"Come on, out with it, what are you thinking about?"

Tina looked at their hands before turning her's over and threading their fingers together,

"I mean I don't have a ring on me but...if you'll let me propose without one then I-"

Tina's words were cut short when Valerie leaned over and kissed her, tightening the grip on their joined hands. When she pulled back, they smiled at each other, as Valerie stroke the back of Tina's hand with her thumb.

"So that's a yes?" Tina grinned when Valerie scowled playfully at her, and her eyes gave her the only answer she needed, 

"Yeah I knew it. Of course it's a yes."

Of course it's a yes.

_Of course it's a yes._

**Of course it's a yes.**

**_Of course it's a yes-_ **

"-Valerie? Hey, Morales, you still with me?"

Valerie blinked rapidly and the hospital waiting room came into focus. Crouches in front of her was Gavin, recognisable by his usual leather jacket and the five o'clock shadow on his face, his hand half raised like he was going to wave it in front of her eyes. He looked calm enough but his eyes betrayed the worry and fear she was sure was also written all over her.

"You back from Mars?" he joked to lighten to the mood, and it almost worked had it not been for the stench of sterile hospital cleaner and the nurse that emerged from the door opposite to the searing area, that grounded her to where she really was. 

Gavin pushed himself off the floor and into the seat beside her, and let her lean against his arm. 

"She's going to be okay. She's bounced back from way worse than a knock on the head. She's stubborn, Valerie, you know that. And she's a badass," Gavin words comforted her a little, but she was almost sure he was saying them to comfort himself too, as they waited a hallway from their best friend. 

"Yeah," she breathed in response and they fell quiet, the distance ringing phone and footsteps becoming the soundtrack to their growing nerves. 

"She thought I was going to propose tonight."

Gavin raised an eyebrow at her, when she didn't continue, 

"Were you?" 

Valerie shrugged, 

"I thought she was going to propose."

Gavin's lips twitched, struggling to stop a smile from appearing,

"Oh my god-" 

"And then she did. Propose. She didn't have a ring and there was no speech but I just...I said yes, I said yes anyway," Valerie slumped forward onto her hands again as she explained.

Gavin was silent for a moment before he placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort,

"Well then congratulations! I always knew you two were gonna tie the knot...Do you know who you're gonna have as your best man because I'm pretty sure I lost a bet to Chris' about being Tina's and I just think-" Gavin let out a soft groan as Valerie elbowed him jokingly in the stomach. 

"Shut up!" she muttered but she was smiling, just a little, just enough. She sat back in her chair and let herself fully lean on Gavin's shoulder this time. He wound a comforting arm around her back, pulling her into a side hug. Valerie let out a deep exhale, like it was the first time she had taken a breath.

"She'll be okay."

"She'll be okay," he repeated, "Right as rain."

"Tina..!" Valerie and Gavin chorused as they entered her hospital room with the doctor's permission. The wound was very minor but they were still going to monitor her for internal damage, just in case, but she seemed fine on the whole. 

The woman looked up from her bed, fingers brushing against the thick bandage wound around her head, 

"Gavin! I-...W-Who are you?" Tina stuttered, much like Valerie's footsteps as she heard those words, much like the beating of her heart as they pierced her soul. 

Gavin stopped too, and glanced between the woman on the bed and the one beside him. It clicked immediately what was going on. 

Amnesia. 

Fuck. _And Valerie had just-_

He turned to reach out to her but she stepped out of his reach, and sat in the chair beside the bed. 

"I'm..Valerie" Valerie began, surprised the tears she felt in her eyes weren't rolling down her face, 

"I'm..your girlfriend. Well...Fiancée actually, we-we're engaged."

Tina's eyebrows raised so much they almost disappeared under the bandage. She looked between Gavin and the woman at her bedside. 

"You're my fiancée?" Valerie nodded and looked away, like she was expecting rejection. 

"Wow I really hit the jackpot then," Tina continued, and laughed at the surprised shock on Valerie's face. Gavin let out a choked laugh too and only continued when he had seen Valerie give in. 

The doctors said Tina's amnesia was temporary. All she needed was exposure to familiar things and that was certain to bring back her memories. Valerie visited her everyday. Gavin tried to, to help, to comfort Valerie whenever Tina didn't remember something in a story she was telling, to just visit Tina to help her get her memories back, but cases began building at the DPD and he couldn't get time off. 

After five days, Valerie was sitting by Tina's bedside, her head wound healed enough to remove the excess bandages, now she only had a square puffy one on the right side of her forehead. They were listening to a playlist Tina had made for Valerie on their second anniversary of dating, in hopes the familiar tunes would jog a memory or two. 

"It sucks," Tina says out of the blue. Valerie looks up from the tablet she was messing with to adjust the music volume. 

"What does?" 

"That I can't remember you. Because you're really pretty and cool and just awesome and if you didn't already tell me we were already together, I'd ask you out on a date right now."

Valerie's eyes widened and she stumbled over a response as Tina chuckled at her expression, 

"What, was I usually not this forward? 

"No, no..you were."

"Ah, so you're just easy to rile up."

" _Hey-_ " Valerie grumbled but her resolve crumbled when she saw the familiar smile on Tina's lips, the half quirk she always pulled when she was joking. 

"Hey if we're supposed to be engaged, why don't I have a ring? Why don't _you_ have a ring?" Tina asked, on day 10, as Valerie and her ate the fast food she'd managed to smuggle past the nurses' desk. 

"Hm?" Valerie looked up from the noodles she had in front of her, and swallowed before she answered, 

"Oh you proposed without a ring, it was the same night of.. You know."

Tina ignored the later half of the sentence and focused in on the most important part of the sentence to her, 

"You let me propose without a ring?" 

Tina sounded shocked, even when muffled by the salad she was eating.

"I'd have let you propose to me in a barn, for all I care. I love you and I don't care how you'd ask me, my answer will be, of course, a yes."

"A yes?" 

Valerie looked up, ready to answer again but there was something different to the look in Tina's eyes. She became concerned until Tina turned to face her head on, and tilted her head, eyebrows raised, 

"You know, you never actually gave me a verbal yes, when I asked."

It was like the air was stolen from her lungs but in the best possible way, as she listened to Tina speak those words. 

"You..You...?"

"Yes."

"You really..?"

"Yes Valerie, I do. I do remember everythin-" Tina giggles as Valerie launched herself at her, kissing her everywhere she could, on her cheek, her forehead, her nose and her lips, of course. As they pulled away from each other, Valerie still held onto her face gently. 

"And I certainly remember you doing that," Tina continued, half breathless. 

Valerie exhaled a sigh, but a ghost of a smile graced her face, as she leant her head against Tina's, 

"Shut up."


End file.
